1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to computer systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for displaying logical information on storage and network devices within a computer system.
2. Background of the Related Art
Modern computer systems utilize a variety of storage and network devices to facilitate the storage and communication of data amongst computers. Most computer systems utilize logical information, e.g., logical unit numbers (LUN), to identify devices throughout a system. By using logical information rather than an actual physical address for a device, the computer system can be flexible and enable users to access devices based upon the logical information rather than a physical address. As such, the system can be physically altered to replace a failed device, route data around failed network devices, restore data to new or additional devices, yet the logical information remains constant. A computer within the system can communicate with and otherwise utilize services, even though the physical system has changed.
The process of assigning a logical identification to devices, or groups of devices, is known in the art as virtualization. In a virtualized system, a client computer may request data or a service from a network device without knowing the actual physical address of the network device. A volume manager or other network control unit will identify the device using the logical information. In this manner, a client computer does not have knowledge of physical addresses for the devices to which it must communicate.
For example, in a network storage system, generally, there is a host computer that provides a volume manager for managing the logical information. The volume manager maps the logical information to the physical addresses of the devices under its control. The devices within a storage system are generally disk drives or groups of disk drives that store information. A client computer accesses the data through the host by requesting specific information. The volume manager will understand where that information is stored within a physical device and map the request from the logical address to the physical address to access the information. The information that is stored on the disk drive is then provided through a communication network to the client computer. When an error occurs in a physical device, resulting from, for example, disk drive crash or other access problem, the volume manager understands that there is a disk drive malfunction. An operator will then be required to replace the failed device or, at least, inspect the device causing the error. However, the volume manager information that is available to the operator is generally the logical unit number of the failed device. Given only the logical information, the operator is then tasked to determine which physical device has actually failed. This can be a tedious and time-consuming operation.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to display the logical information corresponding to a network or a storage device upon the device such that the operator can quickly determine which device has failed or otherwise requires attention.